British American Tobacco makes £1.5bn from Indian stake sale, buyback ahoy

British American Tobacco PLC (LSE:BATS) said it bagged roughly 166.9 billion Indian rupees, or £1.5 billion, from selling a portion of its stake in Indian consumer goods conglomerate ITC. In a block trade it announced yesterday, the cigarette maker sold around a 3.5% stake in a company it has been invested in for over a century.   As promised, BAT confirmed that it intends to use the net proceeds in a share buyback over the next two years, starting with £700 million this year. "This will enable the allocati ...